The Girl Who Loved Camellias: The Life and Legend of Marie Duplessis

Thanks to a talented author, this tragedy is a pleasure to read. Already praised as a biographer, Kavanagh (Secret Muses: The Life of Frederick Ashton) intertwines the adventures of a famous courtesan with a fascinating period in Parisian history, with each scene spotlighting yet another titillating aspect of 1840s bohemia. Marie Duplessis was an unlikely demimondaine: she began life as an exploited peasant girl, but cultivated her looks and native intellect to gain entrée into cafes, salons, balls, and many high-born hearts—including those of Franz Liszt and Alexandre Dumas—and she played the muse for novels, plays, ballets, poetry, and the enduringly popular opera La Traviata. Charles Dickens called her “one of the glories of the demimonde” and reported that the estate sale following her death from tuberculosis at the age of 23 drew “everyone whom the capital of France counts as illustrious.” Yet a courtesan of her rank had a paradoxical status: socialites admired her from afar, but kept their distance in public. The result was a mixture of respect and disdain within a milieu of literati, cognoscenti, and royalty. Kavanagh’s book is a thoroughly researched and fascinating account of Duplessis’s short life and lengthy legacy. 16 pages of color photos. (June)